That same post about musical acts also mentioned that Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Antonin Scalia flew to Lima to headline a seminar about justice. While I could find no news clippings about Justice Scalia travelling to Machu Picchu or any other Peruvian tourist site, I did catch this photograph of him in El Comercio that accompanied an interview held with him.

This justice is not color blind

While I will not categorize Justice Scalia as a fashion model, I must admit that he certainly can rock the casual “I’m-on-vacation” look better than Justice Ginsberg but probably not as well as Chief Justice Roberts.

Dry Elections

St. Patrick’s Day, as mentioned in an earlier post, saw a city-wide election in which the citizens of Lima were decided whether or not to recall the city’s mayor, Susan Villaran.

Starting on Friday, the concept of “ley seco” (dry law) took effect. The ley seco prohibited the sale and public consumption of alcohol for a few days before an election. At our local grocery store, the beer and wine section were covered with white plastic with a note to the customers explaining why spirits were not being sold. I’m not quite sure what the purpose of the “dry law” is, but the alcohol-free St. Patrick’s Day was not the oddest aspect of this Sunday.

Yes, the recall vote was held on a Sunday. For those in the reading audience who might be wondering how this civic function affected church services and attendance in this Catholic country, fret not.

The city of Lima simply cancelled morning and afternoon church services.

Wow!

What is Spanish for “Irony”?

The votes have been counted and Mayor Villaran survived…barely. Just over fifty-one percent voted to keep her in office. However, there were casualties. Twenty of the thirty-nine regidores (akin to City Council members I believe) were voted out.

Ironically enough, the son of the man who was a main backer of the drive to remove Villaran was one of the twenty regidores shown the door by voters.